Gadhafi's forces shell rebel mountain stronghold

TRIPOLI, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi's forces shelled the main rebel stronghold in a strategic mountain range southwest of the Libyan capital on Thursday, pounding the area with Grad rockets, a resident said.

The Nafusa mountains, which slice across the desert south of Tripoli to the western border with Tunisia, have been a key zone of opposition since the early days of the uprising against Gadhafi's 40-year rule in mid-February. Although Gadhafi's forces control most of western Libya, rebels have linked up with the mountain area's minority Berbers to keep his forces out of the highest points, denying them a military advantage.

On Thursday, rebels fought to hold back government troops rocketing their positions to the east and southeast of the city of Zintan, the rebel command center for the Nafusa mountain range, a Zintan resident said. He spoke by telephone on condition of anonymity out of fear of government reprisals.

The Nafusa mountains are the most important rebel-held swath of western Libya after the coastal city of Misrata, which has been under an even more punishing siege. Most of Libya's rebel forces are concentrated in the east of the country and have been unsuccessful in advancing westward toward the capital even after NATO warplanes began hitting Gadhafi's forces.

The mountain range has been under intensified attack since early this week. Residents of some areas said the fighting had trapped them inside their homes and that they were cut off from food and medical supplies.

BelJassem, a fighter from a Berber village near the mountain town of Yafrin, said on Wednesday that Gadhafi forces had shelled that area repeatedly. "We dig trenches and hide in there at night," said BelJassem, who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals.

In Libya's capital, meanwhile, hundreds of Gadhafi's loyalists staged an overnight show of support, claiming the rebel insurgency was nearing an end.

In the main square in Tripoli, crowds of teenagers, young men and security officers turned out for the government-sponsored rally, spraying gunfire into the air, setting off fireworks and waving green Libyan flags.

Some of them said they were celebrating because they heard on state TV that Gadhafi loyalists were holding similar rallies in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi, though there was no evidence of such a demonstration there.

Benghazi has been firmly under rebel control since the start of the uprising.

"We are celebrating our unity of citizens in east and west," said Raid Mansour, 35, carrying his young daughter on his shoulders. "Now we all think the same: We want freedom and for Moammar Gadhafi to be victorious," Mansour said.

The gathering appeared to have been organized in an attempt to reassure Libyans that the regime was standing strong three months into an uprising that has left most of the east in rebel hands, halted the country's oil exports and drawn in the punishing NATO air campaign. Gadhafi's regime has also been hit by a wave of defections.

Late on Wednesday, Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, denied rumors that Gadhafi's wife and daughter had fled to neighboring Tunisia. "They are in Tripoli; they are safe," he said. He also denied that Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem defected, saying he was in Vienna on business.

Ghanem, who was also head of Libya's National Oil Co., crossed into neighboring Tunisia by road on Monday and defected, according to a Tunisian security official and Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former Libyan Arab League representative who was among the first wave of Libyan diplomats to defect.

Prominent members of Gadhafi's government who have abandoned the regime include the foreign minister, justice minister, a former U.N. General Assembly president and a number of other diplomats.